Supergiant gold deposit discovered in Central China's Hunan

CHANGSHA -- A superlarge gold deposit with estimated reserves of more than 1,000 tonnes has been found in central China's Hunan province, the Geological Bureau of Hunan Province said Thursday.

Geologists have detected over 40 gold veins, with a reserve of 300 tonnes of gold, within a depth of 2,000 meters beneath the Wangu gold field in Pingjiang County, according to the bureau.

The site's gold reserve within the depth of 3,000 meters is further estimated at over 1,000 tonnes, valued at 600 billion yuan (about 83 billion U.S. dollars).

"Many drilled rock cores showed visible gold," said Chen Rulin, an ore-prospecting expert at the bureau, adding that a tonne of ore in the 2,000-meter range contained a maximum of 138 grams of gold.

Liu Yongjun, vice head of the bureau, said that new ore prospecting technologies, such as 3D geological modeling, had been used at the Wangu gold field.

Gold was also found during drills around the site's peripheral areas, unearthing promising prospects, Liu said.